Bochum have launched an investigation after Jordi Osei-Tutu said he was racially abused in the pre-season friendly against St Gallen on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old defender, who is on loan at Bochum from Arsenal for the upcoming season, was visibly upset towards the end of the first half and tried to speak to the referee before walking off. He returned to play in the second half and on Wednesday he condemned the alleged behaviour of one of the St Gallen players.
“I am very disappointed that I was racially abused last night,” he said. “Nobody should ever be discriminated against and it is really hard to understand how a fellow professional footballer can behave disrespectfully in this way. Arsenal and VfL Bochum have given me great support and I hope that we can finally demonstrate that racism has no place in football”.
Bochum added in the statement that they, “Jordi Osei-Tutu and his parent club, Arsenal, are in close coordination to deal with this incident. Both clubs, VfL and Arsenal, stand by Jordi Osei-Tutu and assure him of their full support.”
It added: “We do not tolerate any form of discrimination. Racism has no place in our game.”
St Gallen said on their Twitter feed that they “strongly condemn all forms of racism and discrimination” and that “our players respect each other regardless of their origin, skin colour or religion”.
The Swiss side added that they had spoken to the player accused of making the racist remark and that he had assured them that he had behaved according to the club’s policies during the game.
